Lupita Nyong’o revealed in an interview with CNN that winning an Oscar for her supporting performance in “12 Years a Slave” only led to acting offers for more slave roles in the months that followed her breakthrough victory. Nyong’o made her feature film acting debut as Patsy in the Steve McQueen-directed drama film.

“My winning an Academy Award came at the very start of my career,” Nyong’o said. “It was for the first film I had ever done. So, it really did set the pace for everything I’ve done since. What’s very interesting is that after I won the Academy Award, you’d think like, ‘Oh, I’m going to get the lead roles here and there.’ But it’s ‘Oh, Lupita. We’d like you to do another movie where you’re a slave but this time you’re on a slave ship.’ Those are the kinds of offers [I was getting] in the months after winning my Academy Award.”

“It was a very tender time,” she continued. “There is an expectation for you and your career. There were think pieces about is this the beginning or the end of this African woman’s career? I had to deafen myself to all those pontificators because at the end of the day I am not a theory. I am an actual person. I like to be a joyful warrior for changing the paradigms of what it means to be African. If that means I work one less job a year to ensure that I am not perpetuating these stereotypes that are expected of people from my content then let me do that.”